A Cornish pasty
The view from the 1st tee-block at Victor Harbor Golf Club
A band at The Wheaty on a Sunday afternoon
Buying (another) Glenelg Footy Club premiership stubby holder
Four Larks and a Wren, Tuesday mornings on Three D Radio (with Stu)
The joyful approach to cricket shown by Kapunda’s (own) Darcie Brown
On ‘Play Me’ when Neil Diamond sings, ‘Songs you sang to me/Songs you brang to me’
Meeting The Sportswriter author, Richard Ford, at Adelaide Writer’s Week
The Malcolm Blight statue at Adelaide Oval
The choral singing on ‘Mary Boone’ by Vampire Weekend
Spending a Saturday afternoon hour with a book on the couch during our annual Carrickalinga weekend
That Claire’s favourite cricketer remains Bruce ‘Roo’ Yardley
The character of Marge Gunderson in Fargo
The CF Orr Stakes at Caufield
Ubud’s best rustic eatery, Whole Egg
My fourteen-year-old-son Max learning ‘Hotel California’ on the guitar
A swim-up bar
A Sunday lunch with Mum and Dad and the family
Climbing Mount Remarkable and once descended, the North Star pub
‘Nightswimming’ by REM
Lighting the fire, late afternoon in a holiday cottage
The comedic energy, and crowd participation during the Torrens parkrun briefing
Retrospective gratitude for summer’s final swim
Local poet and former colleague, John Malone, once writing that jetties are umbilical cords attaching us to better versions of ourselves
The annual November lunch with Kapunda mates at Greenock Brewers (tomorrow)
Flopping into the beanbag, occasionally
Buying the vinyl of So Much For The City by The Thrills: immaculate, sunny West Coast sounds by Dubliners
The official ceremony prior to the Adelaide Test when I glance up at the big screen and see Claire interpreting (Auslan)
Our Toyota RAV 4 approaching 500,000 kilometres
A Sparkling Ale longneck at 5.30pm on a Sunday
Hiking from Waterfall Gully to the Mount Lofty Summit (and back down)
The ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ episode of Soul Music on BBC Radio 4
On my annual writing retreat, that first beer in Port Elliot’s Royal Family pub, at 5pm on Wednesday
My sixteen-year-old son Alex beating me at chess
On Fisk, Ray Gruber’s knitwear
The Vintage Vegas aesthetic of The Peninsula Hotel
Looking down across Kapunda from Gundry’s Hill
Stanley Tucci doing Stanley Tucci things in Stanley Tucci ways
Paul Kelly’s ‘Deeper Water’ and its soaring, extraordinary commonplaceness
Spending an hour in the West Terrace cemetery
A late afternoon bowl of hot chips
Da Vinci’s Last Supper was painted on a refectory wall
Glenelg Oval’s new scoreboard
Passing a velodrome during the Milan parkrun
‘The Owl is flying high, frightening to the eye/The Rattler is nearby, Cool is on the fly/Danger is his business’
Locating Claire among the throng following the City Bay Fun Run
Karen Carpenter’s contralto singing voice
Watching the waves with Alex and Max at the Fiki Fiki Bar on Kuta Beach
Wondering if the Robinsons, Dr. Smith, Major Don West, and the robot were Lost in Space upon the Jupiter 2, what happened to Jupiter (1)?
The psychedelic, 60’s girl groups mood of Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee, my album of the year
Rediscovering Riesling in the summer of 24/25
Steve Gadd’s drum solo on Steely Dan’s eight-minute pinnacle, ‘Aja’
Sticky date pudding
How our bottlebrush is at peak annual flowering every Derby Day
VVS Laxman
Imagining a recent phone conversation between Mick and Keith
Spying a chainsaw in the middle aisle of Aldi
The 1982 comedy horror film, Creepshow, directed by George A. Romero
Local racehorse, Flow Meter, starting 200 times (20-26-27)
Jools Holland’s piano solo on ‘Uncertain Smile’ by The The
Pirate Life’s South Coast Pale Ale
The impeccable kicking action of Glenelg captain Liam McBean
The Adelaide Oval Hotel: the best way to sleep at (extra) deep backward square
Picking mint from the garden for Claire’s (evening) gin and tonic
Mr V’s record store on Semaphore Road
Charcuterie for when too much meat is barely enough
the incendiary live version from Goat Island of ‘Only the Strong’ by Midnight Oil
The giant metallic sculpture of a pigeon in Rundle Mall
Four hours of annual wine and chat at Cellar Door Fest; just as Jordan remarks in The Great Gatsby: I like large parties. They’re so intimate.
At Carols in the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, the peculiarly comforting sight of Denis Walter
Philip Larkin: The trees are coming into leaf/ Like something almost being said
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